Christmas Surprises
by Hugsiez
Summary: My take on what could have happened if Luka took Susan's offer to go to her house for Christmas. Please R&R!


A.N- This is my take on what could have happened if Luka took Susan's invitation to go to her place for Christmas. ^_^ Hope you like it, and ty to annuscka for the idea!  
  
Usual disclaimers apply.  
  
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The orange and welcoming sun seemed to be only a mask that disguised the chilly evening that seemed to be starting already. The heavy snow hadn't come yet, but it could almost be certain that, by that night, it would probably be there; making tomorrow a white Christmas. The sunset seemed perfect, though, as the sun slowly started to hide so that the night could come. The sun didn't cast any warmth, though, and the cold air was almost piercing while small and seemingly perfect snowflakes twirled down to the ground. Taking in the scenery in front of him from his apartment window, Luka sighed deeply and leaned against the couch as he stood. He had wanted to work today, to keep his mind away from any lingering thoughts that he didn't want to have, but after a small shift, he had been sent home for the afternoon.  
  
Sighing once more, Luka turned towards his apartment and realized just how dull his Christmas Eve was going to be. There was no Christmas tree with bright lights and colorful presents underneath, there was no dinner being baked in the oven, there was no music, there were no decorations. . .There was nothing. Aside from himself and the furniture, his apartment looked empty; as if the holidays didn't exist. He knew that elsewhere in the building, children were waiting impatiently for tomorrow to come so that they could open their presents, friends were arriving for visits and for parties, dinners being served, music playing. There was happiness. Shaking his head slightly, he went to the kitchen and, as he was walking in, he noticed a small stack of mail that he hadn't checked from the day before. Carelessly, he picked it up and scanned through the few envelopes with bills, advertisements, some announcements for after Christmas sales. . .  
  
Just as he was about to put down the mail so he could reach over for a beer from the fridge, he noticed a green envelope with little candy canes around its borders. Frowning slightly in confusion that someone would actually send him a card, he turned to the sender's address and was a bit more confused when he saw 'Susan Lewis' above the address. Sure, it was her handwriting, but. . . Putting down the other mail, he sat on a stool and opened the card and a small smile crept on his lips when a fat and jolly Santa Claus putting a bright yellow star on top of a Christmas tree. When he opened the card, a reindeer with a garland was putting up some lights on the same Christmas tree, but now Santa wasn't there. Seeing that, Luka's smile grew slightly and read out loud and to himself, "It's time to celebrate the season! Happy Holidays." Still smiling, he was about to close the card when he noticed a small note that Susan had written. "Don't forget that you still have friends that care about you, Luka. Things look bleak now, but they'll get better. They always do. Happy Holidays; Love, Susan. P.S.- My invitation still stands." And, next to that, a small winking happy face was scribbled.  
  
Luka stared at the card for a short while as the words seemed to ring in his head. He hadn't planned to go to Susan's, but he hadn't called her to tell her that he wasn't going. After he had left the suture room she had caught up with him and told him that it'd be a Christmas eve party that would probably go on until the next morning; sort of to just 'hang out' there. He didn't really want to go, but he didn't want to be in his apartment and just sulk while he drank beers and watched TV. Turning to the clock, he checked what time it was before he put the card down and headed for his room.  
  
..::..~..::..~..::..~..::..  
  
Everything in Susan's place was ready for a party. The food was ready; the people that were going were already starting to get there, Christmas music was playing, and everything seemed to go by fine. She was putting down the food that they would be eating on the table when she finally had time to look around to see who had gotten there since, because she had been busy in the kitchen; her friends had helped to open the door. There were some of her friends there who had brought over one or two of their own friends, one or two cousins, but Luka wasn't there. Sighing, she headed back to the kitchen to finish bringing out all the food. She had hoped that Luka would actually come so that he wouldn't be alone for Christmas, but. . .  
  
Just as she finished getting the food on the table, she turned to her guests. "Ok, guys, the food's ready; you can go ahead and eat." She smiled at them when they started to head to the table but when there was a knock at the door, she headed over to answer it. To be honest, this whole hosting job was a bit overwhelming at the moment; she needed at least a second or two free. When she opened the door, she was surprised to see Luka standing there. He was wearing a black suit and a dark green shirt that went along with his suit. His black coat had some snowflakes because, just how he had thought, the snow had started to come down faster and stronger and, even if he had tried to clean his coat of them, there were still there. Smiling, and still surprised, she opened the door wider for him to come in. "Luka, you made it."  
  
Luka smiled, walking inside but standing in front of her when she closed the door. "I'm sorry if I'm late. I. . ." Smiling slightly, he handed her a bottle of wine. ". . .figured that I would bring something to help out. It's nothing big, but-"  
  
Susan smiled and shook her head as she took the bottle. "No, no, it's perfect; come on in. You got here just in time; we're barely starting to eat dinner."  
  
Chuckling slightly, Luka took off his coat and put it down on the couch where all the coats and jackets seemed to be. He turned to Susan's guests before turning to her, talking in a low voice, "I thought you said that they were only a few people."  
  
Susan laughed lightly and, in the same low voice, she leaned a bit closer to him. "Those few people invited a few more people. More than I thought would show up." She smiled and started towards the table with him. "I'm glad that you made it, though."  
  
Luka turned to her and smiled, nodding slightly. "Yeah, I'm glad that I did too."  
  
Dinner went over perfectly, and everybody seemed to like the food. People joked around and talked, and they were all catching up with what they had each done in the time that they hadn't seen each other. There were times that Luka felt like an outsider because, practically, he knew no one there; just Susan. Susan, though, tried to include him in all of the conversations, and most of the people that were there were pretty nice to him as well; except for a guy that, apparently, was Susan's ex-boyfriend and had tagged along with one of Susan's friends. After dessert had been served, they all went to the living room and sat down.  
  
Luka turned to Susan, holding his mug of eggnog, and smiled at her. "Dinner was great, Susan, thank you."  
  
Chuckling lightly, Susan smiled back at him as she ate a sugar cookie. "It was no problem; I'm glad that you liked it. Th-"  
  
"Susan?"  
  
At her name, she turned towards the person that had called her name and she sighed under her breath when she saw Charlie walking over to her. Charlie had been her boyfriend a while back, but they had ended things not so great. In fact, she had been extremely surprised that he had showed up at all; she had been upset that her 'friend' had let him tag along, but she had been trying to ignore him all throughout the dinner. Now, though, that seemed as if no matter how hard she tried to ignore him, he would probably be there until all of them left. "What, Charlie?"  
  
Charlie smiled his prize-winning smile and fixed his short sandy blond hair. His light brown eyes turned harsh when he saw Luka sitting down next to her, but when he turned towards her he smiled. "I want to talk to you."  
  
"Really? I don't really want to. . ."  
  
Almost as if he hadn't heard her, he took her hand and started to make her stand. "Come on, let's go talk outside."  
  
Luka had been frowning the whole time as Charlie talked, especially after the look that he had given him when he had walked up, but when he started to take Susan when it was obvious that she didn't want to go with him, he frowned deeper and took a hold of Charlie's arm as he started to stand. "I don't think that she wants to go talk with you."  
  
"Stay out of this, man. What's your name? Luke, right?"  
  
Susan stood, frowning, and finally able to get her hand free from Charlie's. "It's Luka, Charlie."  
  
Letting out a chuckle under his breath, Charlie shook his head. "What, is he your boyfriend now?"  
  
Luka frowned even deeper, standing up straighter. "I'm her friend."  
  
"Then this doesn't concern you, so move out of the way."  
  
Luka had been about to answer to that, but one of Susan's friends talked. No one from the other guests had really noticed what was going on. In fact, they all sounded cheerful. "Hey, Susan, let's put some music on again!" For the dinner, they had stopped the music but now, before Susan could answer, cheery jazz Christmas songs started to flow from the stereo.  
  
Charlie took Susan's hand again. "Let's dance."  
  
Frowning deeply, Susan pulled back. "No, y-"  
  
Luka took Susan's other hand, putting down his mug. "Actually, we were going to take the first dance, right Susan?" He turned to her and, when she smiled slightly but gratefully, he smiled back and led her to a free space so that they could dance. Among other guests, he doubted that Charlie would create a scene. When they started to dance, Luka smiled slightly at her. "Sorry if I got you stuck you dancing with me. This was really the only thing that came to mind."  
  
Smiling, Susan shook her head as she kept dancing with him. "Oh, it's ok. Thank you, though; that was really nice of you."  
  
Smiling back, Luka shook his head. "It's the least that I could do."  
  
He and Susan kept dancing for hours, not realizing how much time had passed. As they danced, they talked about past Christmas, but they only stayed with happy moments that wouldn't get them depressed. They were having such a great time that the dancing music stopped and now there was light and calm holiday music on. Smiling, they both sat down by the fireplace, right on the floor. Some parts of the two couches were free, but the people sitting there were all having conversations of their own and they didn't want to interrupt. When they sat on the floor, Susan turned to him and smiled at him. The light from the fire seemed to bring out a light in his eyes that she had never really seen before. For some reason, she had the biggest urge to reach over and kiss him, or reach over and move away the small strand of hair that was in front of his left eye. At the same time, though, she wanted to leave the strand there. . . When she realized what she was thinking about, she frowned mentally in confusion. What the hell was she doing? He was just her friend and she cared about him as a friend. . . . Right?  
  
Luka smiled back at her and they kept talking. In fact, it was until around two in the morning that people started to leave while others started to help Susan clean up so that she wouldn't have a lot to do the next day. Luka helped and practically waited until Charlie left at around three to actually go; he was mainly the last to go. Picking up his coat, Luka smiled at her as he walked to the door and Susan went along with him. "Thank you for having me over; I had fun."  
  
Susan smiled and, just when she was about to say something, she remembered something. "Oh! Wait, hold on." Smiling, she went to the kitchen, not noticing that Luka stayed at the entrance to the 'dining room' as he put on his coat. After a short while, she went to where he was, smiling, and handed him a small little holiday basket with a few sugar cookies. "I have a little basket for everyone from the ER, but I figured I'd give you this now and have one less to take. It's just a few cookies."  
  
Smiling, Luka took it and chuckled slightly. "Thank you. I . .didn't exactly buy an-"  
  
Susan laughed lightly and shook her head. "Oh, please, don't worry about it."  
  
Luka was about to say something else when something caught his eye. Looking up, he saw mistletoe hanging at the small arch of the entrance to the dining room. Turning to her, he pointed up to the mistletoe, smiling slightly. "Uh. . . Isn't there a certain tradition with this. . .?"  
  
Looking up, Susan noticed the mistletoe and turned to him, smiling. "Well, yeah, but. . .You don't. . .you know, have to. . ." She didn't want to make him feel forced to kissing her, even if something inside of her was screaming at her to take advantage of the situation.  
  
Smiling, Luka didn't say anything; instead, he leaned forward slightly and, softly, he kissed her lips. Since they had sat next to the fire he had had the biggest urge to kiss her, and now he was glad that he had a reason to. She had looked so beautiful as the light of the fire caught her features, and the way that her black dress seemed to cling to her body loosely but beautifully, and then the way that her eyes seemed to sparkle with happiness. . . It had taken a lot of him to not kiss her; afraid that if he tried something would damage their friendship, but now he took the chance. At the kiss, Susan kissed him back and, unconsciously, she brought up her hands and lightly rested them on his shoulders and, when Luka felt that, he kissed her slightly deeper before pulling back just enough so that his nose would be almost touching hers. He smiled at her again and, in a low voice- almost a whisper, he said, "I wouldn't want to break tradition. . ." When she smiled back, his smile widened slightly and kissed her cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow, huh?"  
  
Nodding, Susan smiled at him. "Yeah, I'll. . .see you tomorrow."  
  
Luka smiled and started to the door. When he opened it and was about to leave, he waved to her before leaving. When the door closed, Susan stayed there where she was, still surprised that he had kissed her, and even more that their kiss had lasted for as long as it did. Grinning, though, looks up at the mistletoe before letting out a small sigh. Christmas this year hadn't been bad. Not bad at all. . . That kiss had been the best Christmas present that she had gotten. 


End file.
